Land of Wine

The small chance of rain that I alluded to in my last post actually was a daylong downpour that put a dampen on all of the Cape residents' moods. Despite the grim clouds, though, Toukam and I decided to hope for a clear-up in the skies as the day went on and got in the car, headed to Stellenbosch, the capitol of South African wines. It was about an hour away, and we got to pass by dilapidated expanses of township shacks. It was a really sobering sight to see- poverty of that magnitude so widespread.

As we cruised down the N2 freeway at a cool 120 kph, the rain continued to pour, obstructing our views of the surrounding mountains. We got of the highway and on to the road that took us into the town of Stellenbosch. Though only a small town, it has plenty of restaurants and a well-stocked tourist office for all the foreigners hankering for that nectar that pours from the locally grown grapes. We picked up a map and charted our course to Jordan, the largest wine estate in the area that was highly complimented in our guide book.

Though we had charted our course, we proceeded to drive around for about 30 minutes, hopelessly unaware of our location and its relation to our desired destination. Twice we returned to our starting point and attempted a second attempt. Finally, after developing our ability to read street signs and follow the official wine route signage, we got onto a small, one lane road that took us beyond a couple vineyards and into the empty parking lot of Jordan. Inside in the wine tasting room, we were the only two customers and took the advice of the attractively-accented young woman behind the counter and proceeded to taste each of the wines made by the estate. This being our first wine tasting, she led us through all the necessary steps of swirling, smelling, spreading, gurgling, and even spitting. We learned that when something has hints of asparagus, it isn't that they ferment asparagus alongside the grapes, but rather it is just another word in the elaborate code of a wine connoisseur.

Not wanting to return empty-handed, we decided to buy a bottle of red and white wine- a chardonnay and a red blend. Due to their shockingly high price of nearly 13 dollars (as compared to 4 in the supermarket for everything else), we think we'll save them for special occasions. Because of the frequency of special occasions here, though, I don't think we'll be waiting long.

We took our leave of Jordan and returned to Stellenbosch for lunch. The wine tasting lady had recommended Gino's, a family style Italian place, so we found it and had a lengthy lunch of focaccia, pizza, and pasta. The rain hadn't stopped, but we walked around the town briefly and got back in the car. The next winery was Morgenau, which has been making wine since the 1600's and is based in a 19th century house. The pictures I posted yesterday are of Morgenau. We ended up arriving to the tasting as they were closing, so we could only try three wines- a sparkling white and two reds. Feeling bad for keeping them past closing, we bought a bottle of the red that we tried and, after sneaking a peak at their fermenting cellar, took a brief walk around the estate. It started to rain again, so we got back in the car and realized that trying to see more vineyards and towns would be utterly futile in this weather. Feeling slightly defeated, we headed back to the Mother City. It was a fine day trip and it smacked of adventure yet to come.

On Sunday morning we headed out early to make it to the one year anniversary service for Hillsong. They had combined multiple services, and we were in a much bigger auditorium at the convention center. The service started off well with quality worship music, but it took an unfortunate turn when the guest pastor, who runs the Hillsong church in London, gave the sermon. Let me just say that it was a sermon of highly questionable quality. He spent the first 20 minutes saying the same thing fifty different times in mildly different ways and then the rest of it making a point that was both horribly structured and unfortunately generic. However, it was encouraging to see that there were some church members who seemed to appreciate his effort. Let me just say that I am glad he was just a guest pastor.

Toukam and I are looking forward to the Tuesday of this week, which is Youth Day. We both have a day off of work, and we're hoping it will be sunny so that we can take the cable car up to Table Mountain. If we do, you're in for some great pictures, Reader! That's all I have to say for today- a pleasantly brief post for the weekend. Thank you so much for reading.